Good stage actors are the ones who can deal with mistakes and no one notices, not the ones who never make them, amirite?

I'm pretty sure that if a stage actor makes absolutely NO mistakes, that is a far less common and more profoundly awesome thing than a stage actor who makes a mistake and fixes it, which is actually quite common.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

but more, someone that can make things look natural when something uncontrollable goes wrong.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Agreed. I agree with the first part of this post, but why would they add "not the ones who never make them" ? If you don't make any mistakes, that is way more impressive.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If you never make mistakes, what can you learn from?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't follow your logic. Are you implying that you should *try* to make mistakes just so you can learn from them? You don't have to mistake to learn. You learn from experience, even good experiences.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well, no. Obviously people shouldn't try to make mistakes. But when I made a mistake once during a rehearsal for one of the shows, and got very upset about it, my teacher gave me a talk about how I should have more confidence in myself, something he wouldn't have said to me if I hadn't made the mistake. Also, by making mistakes, you are able to grow. A person who is a one trick pony and does what they can do right all the time, every time, gets boring after a while. Besides, a person who never makes mistakes does not exist. Everyone makes mistakes.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The actor would clearly be hypothetical, seeing as their is no one like that. But wouldn't that hypothetical actor not need to learn from their mistakes if they are perfect? If you don't make any mistakes, then what do you need to learn? How would they be a one-trick pony if they make no mistakes? Normally, when people grow or learn, they are trying to do more things right. If you make no mistakes, you have no room to grow or learn. You wouldn't need to.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It takes much more skill and creativity to improvise a line on the spot, and make it seem right when you forgot yours, or screwed something up then it does to memorize you lines and say them right. A large part of acting is being able to make things that go wrong, right. It happens ALL THE TIME. A person who 'never makes mistakes' is more likely to be flustered and fumble if they get nervous on show night.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This is so true, but with other things, as well. In Irish Dance competitions, the judges don't actually KNOW the steps, they just judge how well you do them. So if you somehow forget what you're doing, or make a mistake, you can actually make up stuff and no one will notice. But if you make a mistake and pause or start fumbling...everyone...glares at you and stuff, and its obvious you're not that great...sorry to babble.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

an actor who has never made a mistake is one who has never taken any risks. the beautiful thing about live theatre is that every performance is different. for an actor to always be the same, they are being robotic. an actor who knows how to go with the flow, and continue smoothly through both their mistakes, and other cast members mistakes, or even mistakes with the set, is one that is, in my opinion, much more talented.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree. I know this guy who is an awesome actor and while we were doing our school play someone else had made a mistake and he went with it and the audience didn't even notice. That takes an amazing actor to do.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Or the opposite, an actor in a play I saw forgot his line, and it took a girl five minutes to figure something out about how to help him out. It was quite obvious he screwed up.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i think audiences love it when an actor makes a small mistake and even acknowledges it and makes a joke about it. like if someone misses a cue to be on stage and the other actor has to ad lib. it adds humanity and character to a show.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You're an AVPM fan? lol remember Ron and the floo powder? Sorry if you have no clue what I'm talking about.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Floo Powder Power?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

But he like...forgets his line when Harry asks him where he was. "I was getting some...uh...floo powder!" It wasn't that big of a deal, though.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It seemed like AVPM had a lot of improv, because it would take a LOT for people to make something that funny. I think the whole Snape-deja vu thing was a mistake, but it was funny

by Anonymous 13 years ago

are you sure it was a mistake? because that was funny as hell and it was one of my favorite lines

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think it was, but it was still soooo funny =D Yeah, it was one of my favorites, too

by Anonymous 13 years ago

My bet would be it started as a mistake in rehearsals and they just went with it, and kept it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Probably. If it wasn't a mistake made then, I guess they wouldn't have kept the camera on him [youtube]

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Thank you for turning my post into an AVPM discussion. You made my day!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Wow, that was over a year ago. Yay! You're welcome!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

during one play that i was in, a christmas carol, scrooge, which was played by and older man was spinning around during a scene and he fell off the stage. he covered by making remarks like saying "i'd be better if i could stay on my feet" when someone asked how he was, which was one of the lines. it was pretty amazing.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The best thing about doing Shakespeare plays is that if you mess up the lines, you can just garble out some "Tis a profound bit, excret'd from the girth of a thespian" or some bullshit like that, and the audience will nod along because either way they don't understand what you're saying.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If a stage actor makes no mistakes then one time they make a mistake, they were taught how to make it less noticable, so it is possible to be both, and its better to make no mistakes then making some but fixing them.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

But if they have never had to use that they may have forgotten and get flustered, as most people would on there first mistake, after improvising seems natural.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

better to make nomistakes at all than make one and fix it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yet how many times will that happen? Do I hear a never?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

no mistakes* (i made a mistake, but that doesnt count cuz im not on stage.)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i just realized this is a really good life lesson

by Anonymous 13 years ago

As a life long stage actor, I agree 100% with this post.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I was at my friend's play and in the middle a girl tripped over a chair. Instead of yelling at her another girl said 'Rachel (her characters name) you are always so clumsy!' I was extremley impressed with that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This is both right and wrong. They are BOTH strengths in their own ways. The BEST actor would be one who can look natural if something goes wrong, but rarely ever makes mistakes.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That's pretty much what I meant.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I figured, but that's not what it says. XD

by Anonymous 13 years ago

yea dat shiz be pimpin (:

by Anonymous 13 years ago